Swing, I really feel for him. I heard Fox gave it to Del Rio. Same thing with Sherman. Everyone thinks his rant at the end was because he was dissed. He was....Carrol gave the patch to Harvin for "providing inspiration". At least they got a hat and t-shirt. We'll probably see them on e-bay soon.

I think those where the holographic stickers you see on things. Noticed Sherman and Wilson had theirs on too. And just imagine, for $60+ you too could get the same hat and t-shirt. For $120+, you could get them for each conference. Pretty cheap, right? And...you don't even have to play the game!

It's amazing how people on this board can't take a joke or sarcasm. All they do is whine and cry about bats, balls, schedules, fields, rules, ratings...just name it and there's a complaint. And I already own some swamp land in Florida. Wanna trade?

I remember playing league against John, Bill and at least one of the Wissingers (If I'm not mistaken, one of the Wissingers is being inducted into the Hall of Fame in Butler this year). They were on Alexander Inn (kicked everybody's butt!) and we did play on a field behind The Pike. Didn't have to go too far for brews after the game, right across the dirt parking lot. John was the smoothest shortstop I ever saw. I never saw him stand up to make a throw. He would always throw it from wherever he caught it and get every runner by a step. It appeared to me he did his throws deliberately...if you were slow he "tossed" it over, if you were fast, he gunned it. Just to make sure you ran it out! I watched John play baseball in the Prep League in Butler. Pullman Park at that time had the exact same dimensions as old Forbes Field. John would hit them over the light standard in left center. Watched him and played against him until he got signed by the Orioles (if I'm not mistaken). I always thought he was Cal Ripkin before Cal Ripkin (i.e., a big strong shortstop, which was not the norm at the time). My understanding is he came home after a couple years because the Orioles brought up another young shortstop by the name of Belanger. I'm pretty sure John could outhit Belanger, but it made me appreciate just how good Belanger's fielding was if he beat out John.

Was Tom Miller also known as Tiny? I remember playing against someone like Tom, but never heard the other nicknames. Tiny also played professional softball and hit them out of major league parks.

That's awful! An enjoyable vacation with grandchildren turns into such a tragedy. Glad to hear Steve is responsive and there may not be any brain damage. Northern Virginia Force sends their prayers out to Steve and his family for a full and speedy recovery.

Donnie, NV Force did not tell RB we would not play you. We entered this tournament fully expecting to play against Turn Two. We were as surprised as you were when the schedule was released. Since Turn Two is the dominant team in 60 Major plus, we entered this tournament with the hope of being reclassified to AAA for ISSA and ASA afterwards because it is so hard to compete against you, especially since you took two of our best players this year. After your very competive showing in Raleigh this past weekend against five 55 Major plus teams, we also think you would want to play more competitive teams rather than beat up on teams with less talent. There are at least 5 other 60 Major plus teams on the east coast and for the most part you all refuse to play one another. There have been very few Major teams that have entered RB's tournaments since he combined Major and Major plus. We have played you numerous times and have given you some very competitive games because of the equalizer. We are not afraid of the competition, but we would like to be competitive.

Donnie and Harry, thanks. Harry, some of us are not the social butterflies like you. Plus, I was too busy making sure Melvin would throw strikes. I do remember Bruce because I coached 1st a couple of times and we did have some conversations.

Donnie - The ball came off the bats pretty good. It might have been the cool weather. The scores were 24-11, 34-26, and 16-13. Crystal Pharmacy won the 1st and 3rd games. We hit a total of 4 homeruns in 3 games, Crystal Pharmacy hit 14 (2 for walks) and hit their limit in each game.

BruceinGa - What position did you play? I did not know you were on this team and it would have been nice to meet you and put a face to the name.

We (Northern Virginia Force) got the same story from SPA. What started out as a 3 day tournament, went to a 2 day tournament and turned out to be a 1 day tournament. We found out Friday morning when we were supposed to start pool play. We were supposed to play 4 pool games on Friday (3 were scheduled and we volunteered to play the 4th game)and then the best 2 of 3 in DE on Saturday. We played 1 pool game Friday morning then had to sit for 2 hours with 3 of 4 fields open while 2 teams played their pool game for seeding purposes. They had a meeting after the last pool game and told us we were not involved and to go away. We played our 2 of 3 and then went home. They could have let us start at the same time as the last pool game, but made us wait until that game was over. And the 10-15 minute breaks between games turned into 30-45 minute waits because the umpire went to the other fields to watch games. A lot of time was wasted, not to mention the expense for just a 1 day tournament. We played SPA in Glen Burnie and Richmond and they are always screwed up too. As for the refund, I am willing to bet they did not tell anyone so they could say "you played" and then invoke their refund rule as stated in their rulebook. I'm not sure if it's $25 or $25/game. Either way, it's not any consolation. I'm pretty sure we won't be playing any SPA tournaments, except for maybe Dalton, from now on. This was beyond a fiasco!!!!

I think the rules for moving up and down should be the same. Currently, you are automatically moved up if you win a major tournament in any of the associations and there were at least 6 teams competing and you have no appeal rights for a year. Any team can get "lucky" for that one weekend. In order for them to move back down, they then have to play 3 tournaments, get their butts kicked each time, and then appeal. You also have to provide the appropriate stats to justify your appeal. I think you should have to win 3 major tournaments in 1 year to move up. That makes the movements equal. Also, you should be able to prove you shouldn't be moved up by providing the same appropriate stats. I'm also not sure I like the measuring stick of beating your opponents by an average of 5 runs or more. You can lose a lot of close games and then beat someone badly and that will screw up the average. Average really doesn't mean anything unless you look at all the information on how that average was achieved. I realize none of this is easy and the associations do the best they can to avoid any "sandbagging". I also think SSUSA does a much better job than SPA and ISSA in rating the teams.

As for homerun limits, I don't mind them. They have been around for years. In fact, I would venture to say most local leagues have home run limits so I don't see what the big deal is. What happens after the limit is reached is another matter.

Marv 19...loved your comment about the water. We played in the Eastern Nationals this past weekend and one of the park personnel was clearing out one of the water coolers, bitching and moaning the whole time that some guy had turned his ankle and didn't have any ice. So, what did he do? He took the top off the cooler and stuck his foot in it!! How gross is that? Then the whole team was complaining because they needed a new cooler of water. By the way, there was ice available all over the park. All he had to do was ask around.

To me the system today is better. More teams get to participate in the bigger tournaments, regardless of what you call them. In the old days, there were a lot of teams in the regionals that got eliminated by playing the much better teams. I understood the elimination process then, but didn't like it. A lot of teams only got to play only two extra games at the end of the year and could never make it to the state finals. And regardless of what anyone says, not all ballplayers are created equal and no amount of "hard work" will make them equal. If that were so, a lot of us would have played major league ball because the work was put in to get better. It's like that in any sport...they all have divisions based on abilities. That's why some baseball players never get out of the minors. The work is put in by them, but there is someone better that gets promoted. Natural ability has an awful lot to do with the quality of play and it also is a big factor on what team you play on.

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